THE Farmers' Union of Wales has welcomed the prison sentence imposed earlier this month on a woman involved in the bushmeat trade.

But the union warned that such a sentence may become an increasingly rare event due to the Government's apparent reluctance to provide enough money to enable law enforcement agencies to follow up the seizure of illegal food products with prosecutions.

Paulina Owusu Pepra became the first person in Britain to be jailed for the commercial selling of bushmeat.

Pepra, 45, was jailed for three months by magistrates in Haringey, London, after being convicted on 23 charges of selling meat unfit for human consumption. Two tonnes of rotting meat had been discovered in her store in Tottenham.

The conviction was secured after an extensive investigation by Dr Yunes Teinaz, a senior environmental health officer with Haringey Council. Dr Teinaz addressed the annual meeting of the FUW in Aberystwyth in 2002, and shocked his audience with facts and figures about the scale of the illegal bushmeat trade.

The union has worked closely with Dr Teinaz since then to highlight the potentially deadly trade in illegal meat imports.

FUW president Gareth Vaughan said bushmeat presented a major health hazard for both human and animal health in this country.

He said, "The FUW has consistently lobbied the Government to invest greater resources into security measures at all ports of entry.

"I am afraid, however, that due to a lack of resources many law enforcement agencies across the country will find the cost of prosecution to be prohibitive and will be forced to simply let offenders off with a warning."